"الإصلاحات في مسقط: الجمارك؛ الموارد المالية، والمفاوضات مع العُـمانيين" [و‎‎١‎٢‎٧] (٥٠٨/٢٥٨)

No# Of 1920•
Political Agency arid Consulati, muscat#
Ihe 3rd January 1910,
from
Jfcsquire, I .C .6 #i
rolitio^il Agent and iUJb.i&'s Consul, .-uacat.
To
ihe Civil Commissionerp
Baghdad,
Sir,
i
1 have the honour to address you on the subject of
the Customs arrang«ffient« in > u «oat and Oman and to invite
a reference to the previous correspondence on the subject.
The position as regards the Cu«?t0ffi9 is briefly as
follows. Government ha granted a loan of six and a half
i
lakhs of rupees to the Sultan on the security of the
Uu toms and the sub»idies # and contingent on our control
of the administration of tne Custom through a director
appointed by us. On 1st October 1919 the new officials
consisting of a director and two aasietants, all Egyptians,
commenced their work, A very great itiprore/rient in receipts
and administration ha^ been shown in use at and ^uttra.
The control of » UBcat and i.uttra is however only
half the battle. The Sultan of Oman, whose sway is acknow-
-ledged on the coa^t though it is not in the interior,
controls customs from Has ^usandum to Has al Hadd, that is
over a stretch of four hundred miles of coast containing
in addition to uscat and ^uttra the ports of Shinae,
Sohar, aftkhm, Khaburah, 5uweik # Odara, Barkah, Sib, iuriyat
and 3ur # all connected with the interior, and the latter a
very considerable export and import centre* A very large
proportion of the trade iB by dhow3 which habitually use
these small ports, and is concerned with export of produce
from